I have no idea if Daryl Morey reads these comments, but he might be able to learn a few things from a guy named Kubiak

Last week when I asked Gary Kubiak why he never reacts to criticism or tough questions or second-guessing, he had a good answer.

“To tell you the truth, it motivates me,” he said.

He said he’d listened to Gary Allen’s I Get Off on the Pain during his morning treadmill workout.

“I think I do get off on the pain,” he said.

As I got him wound up on the subject, he actually said some very touching things, some things that tell you why even though of us who’ve ripped the guy think so much of him and root so hard for him.

“I know you have a job to do,” he said.

Dozens of people have told me that same thing over the years, and I’m pretty sure not one of them meant a word of it. I believe Gary Kubiak means it.

“Besides,” he said, “I’ve known you guys, you and John (McClain), Mark (Berman) and Matt (Jackson), all you guys, I’ve known you for years. I also know how great it’s going to be when we’re sitting in that room together after making the playoffs. That’s the vision I have. That’s what drives me.”

Daryl Morey is catching it pretty good, too. For a couple of years, he was the guy who turned water into wine with his deals for Lowry, Brooks, Budinger, etc.

Now he’s the village idiot because (a) McGrady and Yao got hurt and (b) he hasn’t delivered a Kevin Durant or a Chris Bosh to our doorstep to replace them. I don’t know if he reads this stuff or not.

My read of him is that he’s a lot like Kubiak in that he’s motivated by the criticism, and like Kubiak, he’s harder on himself than any columnist or talk-show idiot can be.

He won’t like inaccurate stuff, like the one guy who wrote he’d run Jeff Van Gundy off. Not true. Not close to true. In fact, JVG admitted months later he wishes he’d handled the whole thing differently. I know all of this because of some rather extraordinary reporting by one Richard Justice (UT ’76, award-winning journalist, talk-show wit, future Curator of the Daryl Morey Museum and Research Institute).

But a coach friend of mine used to tell me he just didn’t care much about who criticized him because, as he said, “When we stink, we deserve it. It’s a bottom line business.”

The bottom line with the Rockets is that this is the first off-season Morey will have had a real chance to make an impact acquisition. But what he really needs is an impact player, and teams that get those players usually have to get a Top 3 pick.

I believe in him because I believe that really smart people always figure out a way. It may not happen as quickly as any of us want it to happen, but I believe in Leslie Alexander and the staff he has hired at Toyota Center. I also believe in Beatles.